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Rare's Banjo-Tooie Hitting XBLA April 29th

Rare's classic platformer sequel Banjo-Tooie is getting ready to hit Xbox Live Arcade two weeks from now. The game's official launch date, according to the official Banjo-Kazooie blog, is set at Wednesday April 29th. This represents the series' second Nintendo 64-to-XBLA port. Developer 4J Studios has ported the game over to Arcade, and much like Banjo-Kazooie, Tooie promises a bunch of tweaks and improvements.

Set a reminder in your reminding appliance of choice, as it's full to the brim with updates and tweaks from the original release, not least being a super-charged frame rate and some fully-featured Stop 'N' Swoppery.

Now that would normally be enough to satisfy even the staunchest Jiggy-hunting aficionado, however we've never been the types to settle for the expected. Accompanying the release will be a double bill of Tooie-themed Gamerpics – yours for the miniscule sum of 80 MS Points. Cast your gaze downwards to see what we have on offer...

An official area over on Rare's website has also been opened up in preparation for Tooie's new lease on life. The much talked-about Stop 'N' Swop features of the game will be revealed in the near future, according to the blog post. Tooie will cost 1,200 MS points.

See what happens when you crank up the framerate on an old N64 game?

Bryn says: Mmmm. Tooie. How I have missed your allure, charm and massively bigger-than-the-first-game levels and challenges. I have a confession to make actually. I've beaten Banjo-Kazooie around a dozen times from start to finish, but I've never fully completed Tooie once.

For shame. I think I was a bit too scarred from playing Donkey Kong 64 to really get into Tooie at the time. Bah.